~ A garden set in the Wye Valley

Westonbirt Arboretum : Walkies in Silk Wood

Westonbirt Arboretum was created by two generations of the Holford family at a time when Victorian passions for plant hunting and pictureque landscapes were at their peak. What were once common, wood, and chalk down lands were fashioned into an ambitious showcase for the family’s taste and considerable wealth.

Sir George Holford (far left) Equerry to Prince Edward shown here with the royal party and Queen Alexander, 1908 (Wikipedia)

Today, the 600 acre estate is managed and conserved by the Forestry Commission along much more scientific lines. It ranks as one of the finest collections of trees in the country. Every year it attracts well over 300 000 visitors, many of whom flock to see the six week long spectacle of autumn colour.

The gently curving gateway visitor centre soon after it opened (June 2014).

I admit I’d forgotten this when we jumped in the car on Sunday morning. We arrived mid-morning, which is peak time, especially when the weather is warm and sunny. Finding ourselves first parked miles away from the newish entrance and visitor centre, then swept along with the throng across the really new Treetop Walkway heading for Silk Wood, I wondered if we’d made a mistake. We are such quiet country mice ….

The walkway in June.

Last time we were here, bright and early on a wet Saturday morning in early June, we had the wonderful 300 metre long walkway all to ourselves.

It’s a marvellous construction ….

Step-free, it gradually ascends and descends to and from a height of 13 metres.

This time our progress was inchingly slow, as the dogs were delighted to be making as many friends as possible. We were intent on heading towards one of our favourite areas, the Japanese Maple collection.

Most of the acers here have been planted over the last ten years or so.

Miraculously, the beautiful cathedral like glade, sheltered by towering larches, was deserted, perhaps because it is still rather early for colour from the carefully nurtured 400 acers it contains.

More mature specimens are to be found on the southern edge of Maple Loop.

We always linger here for a spot of wistful window shopping.

Oak Avenue’s native mixed woodland

Beyond this point and following the ride called Oak Avenue the character of the woodland changes dramatically. Gone are the clusters of artfully arranged rare and exotic trees, in their place is burgeoning native woodland rich in wide ‘weedy’ margins, and so, rich also in wildlife. Back in the late spring I stood transfixed watching a hedgerow teaming with goldcrests.

This time it was the swathes of rosebay willowherb with their corkscrew seed heads glinting in the sunshine that caught my eye. It has good autumn leaf colour too.

Waste Drive is a name that predates the arboretum, to the time when villagers used this path to get to the common or wasteland.

Where the unregimented avenue meets Waste Drive you can see how the modern management of the woodland works, here on the periphery of Silk Wood are the species trials plots containing hundreds of trees raised from seed or propagated by cuttings. Plus, mountainous piles of by-products from the never-ending tree work.

Conveniently close-by is the impressive Woodchip Sterilisation Unit with its mighty state of the art, temperature controlled bays that ensure the mulches are free from diseases like honey fungus.

Silk Wood is quite simply doggie heaven, well behaved dogs are welcome off lead so the place is full of friendly wagging tails. All of which which made it a brilliant place to socialise our dogs when they were young.

This final stretch of the walk towards The Downs has an excellent collection of mature shrubs, small trees, plus conifers – among them a wide range of continus and shoulder high sweeps of sculptural silver leaved sea-buckthorn. Throughout the arboretum, information boards are nearly as numerous as benches, it was news to me that native sea-buckthorn is so good for the skin that Russian Cosmonauts used it to protect their skin from solar radiation. Personally, I’d rather use it as a salve than eat recipes construed from the bitter bright orange berries😉.

The combinations look great at any time of the year but for me on this perfect early autumn day one in particular stood out. The delicious scent of candyfloss wafting from the closely planted group of a dozen or so young Cercidiphyllum has the same allure to me as a Bonio to the dogs, off I went for a closer sniff. As you might expect, Westonbirt excels in the provision of precise botanical labels, in this case, it turned out to be the very same C. magnificum Roy Lancaster has written about in this month’s RHS The Garden magazine.

C.magnificum

We have a little, lone Cercidiphyllum japonicum growing on in fits and starts at home, this year the leaves on its upper branches have been looking so crumpled and parched that I’ve wondered if it hasn’t missed the light shade and shelter of the big blue cedar we felled in February. Westonbirt have the katsuras facing the morning sun, then protected by an arc of tall conifers to the rear. They say, planting over a gravel path where the fallen leaves are crushed by passing feet heightens the aroma.

In between are a mixture of medium height trees with wide canopies including a very beautiful veteran Acer Japonicum or Full Moon Maple with its swooning branches topped with a crown of dazzling colour.

Until fairly recently this part of the beautiful Grade 1 listed chalk downlands served as the main carpark. Since the new carpark opened, the view from the terraced restaurant is vastly improved too.

It reminded me that, once ablaze, the star attraction for thousands of visitors will be Robert Stayner Holford’s Old Arboretum (which is sited opposite Silk Wood). Then the air near the old visitor centre will be heavy with the smell of bangers and burgers sizzling away in gourmet catering vans. Maybe next time I shall take a spin around the dog free zone while one man and his dogs partake of a bacon butty for breakfast?

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22 thoughts on “Westonbirt Arboretum : Walkies in Silk Wood”

A lovely post Kate. I have recently heard of a tree top walk in southern Germany, but fear it is a commercial attraction aimed at keeping the kids happy in the holidays… nonethelss, your post has spurred me to reconsider visitng it, as we have nothing similar to an Arboretum near us. Those maples are beautiful with the sunlight filtering through them. Nice to see dogs are welcome there too! Has the poorly one made a complete recovery?

I’m not sure I’d visit a treetop walkway for the sake of it, partly because I have no head for heights! However this one is very sturdy and well designed to get visitors to the heart of silk wood …. You’re kind to ask after Poppy, very bad prognosis but she’s coping well for now. Each day is extra precious.

We used to live quite near there and it was a favourite Sunday morning walk. It seems to have changed quite a bit and I did resent them hiking the price so much in autumn! I do love Cercidiphyllum japonicum though, mine is just turning. It was a must have tree when we first moved here.

We use to be regular visitors when we lived in Great Sommerford, it was free all those years ago. I was not so impressed when we visited two years ago with the long walk from the new car park to the cafe. It was not very wheel Chair friendly, many (older) locals use to like to just pop in for a coffee and admire the views.
The other half of the estate is the girls school, they do now open the gardens to the public on certain days. Well worth a visit.

What a very interesting comment, thanks Brian. I see they have mobility scooters at the visitor centre and guess that on a busy day they use the new main carpark for accessible parking, I imagine the distances might be off-putting for regular users. Did you ever visit the formal gardens at Westonbirt House?

The first time we went to Westonbirt we made that ‘mistake’, not expecting thousands of other people to be there! That was quite some time ago and although we have been since, it must have been before the walkway and new car park were built and I am not sure I even remember a cafe or or house!! Mind you I think it must have been ‘free’ for both us and it was only a visit in passing on our way to somewhere else. The walkway looks a great structure but it it is interesting to read Brian’s comments. Hope Poppy continues to cope as well as possible with her condition.

These days, unless you’re a member of the friends of Westonbirt with free entry, you wouldn’t want to be splashing out for just a quick stop – I think it was £9 a ticket. The grand house is out of sight, on the other side of the main road/village. Thank you for your well wishes for P.🙂.

Oh is that on the fixture list then? Hurrah! Haven’t been to BBG for a long while but like other BG they are always worth a visit. Thought we would visit Bristol BG when we have my birthday trip in Dec – they will at least have glasshoeses I expect!

I’ve only been to Westonbirt via the medium of TV programmes or magazine articles so I enjoyed coming along with you Kate and I feel exactly the same about madding crowds. I usually visit Winkworth Arboretum around the third week in October for the best autumn colour but judging by our local trees I think it may be later than usual this year. I’m afraid I have ‘t even opened the latest issue of The Garden yet so I think I’ll take it upstairs for soothing bedtime reading (after watching The Fall just now which I can’t say I enjoyed!). A quick garden visit is becoming prohibitively expensive. Fortunately yesterday I was able to use my RHS membership for free entry into West Dean Gardens near Chichester. We were only there for a late afternoon cup of tea on our way home from the beach and if we had had to pay two garden entries of £8.50 each I am sure we would not have bothered but in the end we enjoyed a lovely hour-long stroll with the gardens almost entirely to ourselves.

Thank you for such a thoughtul comment, you’re lucky to have a good garden (with a tea shop 😉) on your doorstep to pop in and out of like this. I’ve only just discovered that from January 2017 RHS membership won’t apply at Westonbirt – must say I’m a bit miffed! Hope you catch a good show of colour at Winkworth.

This is such a lovely post full of enticing views and ideas. I love the hints of colour you captured. I have some baby katsura saplings behind the greenhouse (the seed was just lying about as a thick mulch beneath the tree, honest) and I’d forgotten about their autumn smell. I wonder if they’ve got sufficient leaves for me to get a whiff? What a great dog-friendly place for you to have in visiting distance. Paradise for them as you say. I’ve just been checking up on a local NT place (Ickworth) to see if I can take Sadie tomorrow (yes, on a lead), because there’s a wood and craft fair on.